Creating amazing user experiences in virtual desktop environments with synthetic monitoring

Creating amazing, authentic, and user-driven applications isn't easy. Between the +3 million apps in mobile app stores and the millions of business apps and web experiences nestled in public, hybrid, and private cloud servers, competition is fierce and expectations are sky-high. Your employees expect the same top-tier experiences they get from consumer apps. And failing to deliver those experiences impacts your bottom-line productivity and happiness.

If the virtual environment looks pitch-perfect, it must work great... right? Maybe not. Beauty isn't turning users into scary, ticket-creating beasts; it's your usability. Seventy percent of poor user experiences are due to "bad usability." And 48 percent of users will run to the hills if they experience slight hiccups in optimization.

Here's the scariest statistics of all: less than 58 percent of companies conduct ANY user end-user experience testing — despite UX having a proven ROI of over 9,000 percent. Are you ready to break the trend? Do you want to build a VDI that performs smoothly across platforms and applications? Here's how you do it:

1. Create Smart Benchmarks

Do you want to create amazing experiences? You need a frame of reference. Benchmarking app fundamentals like uptime, consistency, and overall performance against competitors (or non-competitor environments that are considered "best-in-class") is a surefire way to contextualize your overall UX. To be perfectly honest, the visual baseline for virtual desktop environments is murky. Unlike traditional, UI-driven apps, most virtual desktop environments look nearly identical. So, your goal is to measure against tangible benchmarks, like uptime, downtime, and other usage-based metrics. By running consistent synthetic tests across standard workflows you can predict when applications may fail based on historical performance.

Make no mistake: UX is still table stakes in virtual environments. Your employees or B2B clients are people. And, like everyone else, they have a tendency to get angry when your virtual environments misbehave. Did you know the average person tells 15 people when they have a poor experience? There's a reason that companies leading in "UX" outperform the S&P by 35%. They have happy, engaged employees spending hours tackling work problems — not dealing with usability issues.

Struggling to measure app performance? Grappling with uptime issues? Keep scrolling. We've got your back. 

2. Find Problems Before Problems Find Your Users

You don't want to play "UX catch-up." Amazing and authentic user experiences don't happen after an employee submits a ticket. They happen when your users have the ability to operate within your virtual environments and services seamlessly. As a business, your everyday goal is to solve user pain points. If you're letting issues annoy your users, you're already failing. In other words, catch problems before they catch you. 

We know; easier said than done. Most businesses are stuck in the ticket loop. Does this process sound familiar?

"Employee starts work. Employee finds problem. Employee submits ticket. The ticket sits in queue for 2 months. 

It's misery.

Guess what... there's a way out. What if you could find nearly every VDI issue before your employees even have a chance to bump into them? Hint: scroll down to the bottom of this post.

3. Measure Early

Sorting out testing early in your cycle (DevOps for the win!) helps you accelerate app creation. But it also helps you design virtual desktop environments around UX — instead of thinking of UX as an afterthought. At 2 Steps, we firmly believe that UX ownership belongs to the entire company, not a specific "department" or "unit." Successful user experiences are measured early, built into the core of your apps or environments, and monitored around the clock for competency. 

Are You Ready to Bake UX Into Your App DNA?

We're on a mission. We want companies to create spectacular, mind-blowing VDIs that generate smiles. To be clear, UX isn't a value-added component of your dev cycle or an awesome "hack" to generate more profits. The right user experience can define your apps and solutions, enable your company, and help you create a customer-centric and employee-centric brand.

Do you want to learn more about how to accelerate your end-user experience monitoring? Ready to take things to the next level?

Check out our new free eBook Applying Synthetic Monitoring Across Virtual Desktop Environments, download your copy here. 

Want to learn more about 2 Steps? Contact us.